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When I began my engineering practice about a year and a half ago, I was excited to have enough work to bill 20 hours per week. An architect friend of mine warned me that overnight it could go from just enough work to an avalanche. I remember saying it would be a nice problem to have. Be careful what you wish for, because it just might come true.

The Avalanche Hit!

Well, my friend was right! In what seemed like a sudden experience, I went from having a manageable backlog of work to being completely overwhelmed. Along with it came the stress, converging deadlines and clients wanting to know when their projects would be done.

I thought I had scheduled my work properly…I thought I had not overbooked. Looking back, the beginning of the end was taking on a project for a regular client with an unrealistic deadline. It appears his client had procrastinated getting the architect started, and then demanded that the plans had to be complete and submitted for review within 10 calendar days. Like a dummy (or at least now I know I was a dummy) I agreed. Subconsciously I knew it was a mistake, but I find it hard to say no when someone I like is in need. This caused me to push back other projects and the dominoes started to fall.

At this point a rational person might ask why I continued to take on additional work. Well, several projects were on hold for a variety of reasons (i.e. unresolved drainage issues, funding issues, permitting issues, etc). So I took on additional work to fill the void. Then the unexpected happened…all of the suspended work came back on line at once. Suddenly, I am buried, overwhelmed, or as we say in the biz, generally screwed.

Strategic Alliance

One day, as I sat at my desk, like a deer in the headlights, it suddenly occurred to me that I would be unable to make any deadlines without some help. Given enough time, the lack of performance would kill my business. Unfortunately, the project size I usually specialize in (small projects, with small budgets that turn quickly) is not conducive to hiring staff.

So I decided to enlist the help of a friend that was opening an office for a large engineering firm. Being a firm, that specializes in large residential projects, experiencing a waning housing market, they have a lot of surplus production capacity. After a trial project, we have formalized a strategic alliance where I will contract with them for design and production work on projects that I need to move along.

A strategic alliance is not a joint venture. It is a traditional sub-consultant/client relationship, the difference being that I will use them almost exclusively until my work is under control or perhaps in perpetuity. In one scenario, I can become a contract marketer for the company, using my client contacts to help keep their pipeline full and their employees busy. In another I can just use them to even out the workload peaks or enable me to take on larger projects than I could otherwise handle.

Cashing In on Opportunity Costs

What this arrangement allows me to do is capture revenue that I would otherwise forego. An example happened just last week. I received a call from a client that has a rush project that he wanted me to work on, but wanted to make sure I could perform on time. Because of my new alliance, I was able to assure him that I could handle the work. The result is I will be garnering 20% of a total fee that I would of otherwise turned down, and my friend’s firm will do the work and keep people employed. I am able to turn what would be a lost opportunity into cash.

This is just one example of a creative approach to managing an overwhelming workload. So far it is working well for me. If there are other innovative ideas, please comment on this post and share them with the readers. I am always interested in innovative ideas.

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